afterglow

The same goes for the defeat in Chapter 348; what about the four new battleships?
At nine o'clock in the morning that day, the British-Indian 9th Infantry Division located east of the Terengganu River faced fierce artillery fire.

The assault group included the motorized artillery battalion of the 30nd Motorized Infantry Brigade and the 112 18mm howitzers and 80 [-]mm howitzers of the [-]st Marine Brigade Mountain Artillery Regiment roared in unison.For a time, the British and Indian army positions on the east coast were completely shrouded in explosion fire.

The machine gun bunkers, mortar positions, and support points discovered and marked by the reconnaissance units were all subjected to intensive sabotage fire. Sandbags, steel plates, and logs blown away by the artillery shells flew in all directions.

The artillery of the 11th Division immediately began to fight back, and the QF4.5-inch howitzers equipped by three field artillery regiments (battalions) also began to bombard the Ming army's offensive starting position.

The artillery positions on both sides are well camouflaged and difficult to detect when not firing. Moreover, even after firing is exposed, it is still difficult to coordinate artillery fire to attack in a short period of time.

Zhou Changfeng, who was at the frontline headquarters, turned his head and asked, "Can you observe the location of the enemy's artillery?"

"It should be possible." Zhao Hanfeng nodded in agreement, picked up the field phone and asked, "Do you want to counterattack?"

"Let Zhu Lizhuo coordinate artillery fire, try to suppress the enemy's artillery positions, prepare to cover the forced crossing of the troops, and at the same time carry out obstructive fire at the enemy's shallow and deep depths."

"Yes."

Zhou personally doesn't like long-term, low-intensity artillery preparations. He prefers short-term, high-intensity artillery fire preparations. He feels that this can better achieve the suddenness of the attack and reduce the opponent's reaction time.

The powerful artillery preparation lasted less than half an hour. The Ming army's field artillery group poured more than 6000 rounds of artillery shells at the enemy in front of them, not counting the results of the 128mm heavy mortars belonging to the infantry regiment.

Southwest of Kuala Terengganu, the floating tank battalion of the [-]st Marine Brigade and the [-]rd Battalion of the [-]st Marine Regiment began to forcefully cross the Terengganu River.

There were only a few sparse security positions across the river, let alone anti-tank guns.

Facing the dozens of tanks and hundreds of small boats full of soldiers that came into view, the more than [-] British Indian soldiers here offered little resistance and retreated quickly after only firing a few shots.

One after another, small Type [-] amphibious tanks rushed onto the river beach on the east bank and opened fire on the fleeing British and Indian troops.

It can be seen that the actions of the army were completely beyond Major General Ingram's expectations. He originally thought that since the Ming army successfully captured the Pert Bridge, they would definitely make a fuss about it.

According to conventional thinking, crossing a bridge is much easier than crossing a river, right?

As a result, the counterattack plan prepared by the 9th Division overnight was in an awkward position.

If a counterattack is launched as planned, the Ming army that has already crossed the river may launch a large-scale attack on the flanks at any time, and then it will become a two-front battle.

If it does not launch as planned, the Ming army can also launch an attack by taking advantage of the already occupied Pert Bridge.

After weighing the current situation, Major General Ingram ordered the [-]rd Royal Tank Regiment, which was originally assembled near Pert Bridge, to immediately move to the defense and counterattack the Ming army that had crossed the river to the west as soon as possible.

There are thousands of troops deployed at the Pert Bridge, as well as several anti-tank guns. Even if the Ming army has tank support, it is impossible to achieve a breakthrough. The tanks crossing the bridge will only be deployed one after another in multiple directions. Destroyed by artillery fire.

Not long after, the divisional artillery of the 9th Division began to bombard the Ming army that had crossed the river.

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The messenger who was delivering the message on foot hurriedly lay down, and then crawled into a bomb crater not far away that was still smoking.

One after another, 114.3mm high-explosive bombs fell, and the explosions kicked up large clouds of sand. The officers and soldiers of the [-]st Marine Brigade hid in foxholes, and their bodies were covered with soft, loose sand.

Not long after, everyone saw more than a dozen tanks and more than a hundred British Indian troops advancing slowly, intending to launch a direct attack.

"We observed 150 enemy tanks and about [-] infantrymen advancing towards the headquarters under the cover of artillery fire. We requested that the artillery fire be blocked and the enemy's backup be intercepted."

Although the cutting-edge Type 48 25.6mm anti-tank gun has begun mass production, it is clear that it will not be possible for the entire army to complete the replacement in just over half a year. Even the First Marine Brigade still retains some Type [-] [-]mm anti-tank guns. gun.

Perhaps it is not very powerful, but its total combat weight is only 305kg. Officers and soldiers can easily dismantle it and carry it across the river together.

No matter how good a weapon is, it must appear on the battlefield in time.

16 A9 and A10 cruise tanks arranged in a wedge formation rushed to the front, with an attack front width of nearly 700 meters.

The frontal armor of the former was only 14mm thick, which was too fragile, so the frontal armor of its successor, the A10 cruise tank, was thickened to 30mm.

"Boom!"

"Biu—"

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

After placing the opponent less than 500 meters away, the five scattered Type [-] anti-tank guns opened fire at once!
The smooth movements of the gun crew members almost unleashed the full potential of this small-caliber anti-tank—it can theoretically reach an exaggerated rate of fire of twenty rounds per minute with its semi-automatic bolt opening.

In just ten seconds, more than a dozen shells were fired at him.

At this distance, the 25.6mm armor-piercing bullet is enough to penetrate the A10 tank.

The tank at the front came under concentrated fire and was penetrated everywhere in a short period of time. The driver, heading machine gunner, and commander were killed one after another. The unmanned tank slowly stopped, and gray-white wisps of smoke came from the fist. drilled out of a large bullet hole.

Low anti-tank guns are difficult to detect, let alone tank crew members with limited vision. Some British tank soldiers did not know where the shells that killed them came from until they died.

However, the conspicuous muzzle flash when firing still exposed the anti-tank gun position. The British tanks immediately stopped and tried their best to suppress the Ming anti-tank guns with machine guns.

The QF 2-pounder lacked available high-explosive shells, and the consequences of this problem were obvious.

Maybe when dealing with infantry, British tanks can still rely on machine guns to deal with it, but...how can bullets penetrate the mantlet of an anti-tank gun?
Each round of 7.7mm machine gun bullets hit the 8mm thick steel mantlet, either flying or shattering.

Misfortunes never come singly, and the Ming Army's 64mm and 80mm mortars located on the river bank also began to bombard.

"Boom! Boom!" The mortar shells fell one after another with beautiful parabolic trajectories, bursting out clouds of fire and smoke.

In addition to the standard anti-explosive bombs, there were also some personnel anti-personnel bombs mixed in. The diamond-shaped prefabricated fragments splashed around at a very high speed. The British and Indian soldiers who were accompanying the tanks were suddenly annihilated!
The frightened tank crews panicked and immediately put on reverse gear and began to retreat.

Several wounded soldiers who were knocked down by the fragments desperately moved to the side, but some unlucky ones were crushed by the hurriedly escaping tanks into a blood-red paste mixed with bones, soil, and minced meat.

In this way, the counterattack of the British-Indian 9th Division was easily disintegrated.

"No more suspense, it's boring." Zhou Changfeng yawned.

He stared at the map, stretched out his hand and clicked, "The assault tank unit is ready to be dispatched, and the general attack will be launched at three o'clock."

In fact, Zhou Changfeng is too lazy to plan a battle of annihilation now. He plans to defeat the enemies in person and then drive them southward like sheep.

Under other circumstances, this would definitely be inappropriate, because a rout would have little effect, and many defeated armies would eventually join forces and become hardened.

However, the British and Indian troops are in another situation - when the defeated troops on the east and west fronts of the Malayan Peninsula have all fled to Singapore, it will be easier to catch them all in one fell swoop, which is both convenient and efficient.

When the British and Indian army's counterattack ended in a disastrous defeat, another small battle broke out in the waters near Kuantan.

The remaining light cruiser and destroyers of the Grain Goddess of Fleet A were fleeing in panic. It can be said that the officers and soldiers of the Royal Navy have been shattered by the Ming army's air attack.

Long live!Planes can really sink battleships!The warships evacuated southward at an average speed of 29 knots and encountered the Lixia A-[-] submarine ambushing here.

The latter has been following Fleet A, but because it is heading underwater at a low speed, it has not moved very far until now.

"Good guy, this is so miserable." Ling Su was stuck on the subtraction, surprising.

"Boss, do we have a chance?"

"Yes, of course there is, and it's a good opportunity."

Seeing that the British fleet, which had been so high-spirited half a day ago, was now in such a state of decline, the submariners laughed while getting ready to attack.

Determine the speed and course of the enemy ship, calibrate the azimuth, and calculate the launch elements.

When the distance between the Rikka-800 and the Grain Goddess was less than [-] meters, the deputy captain in charge of the torpedo attack ordered the launch, and then immediately dived to the maximum depth to ensure that there would be no retaliatory strikes.

Four 512mm thermally powered torpedoes drilled out of the launch tube, then floated to the set depth and rushed straight ahead at high speed.

The lookout posts on the Grain Goddess were still worried about the Ming military aircraft, and they were all staring at the sky in the distance. At first, no one noticed the white track that was approaching rapidly.

By the time you notice it, it's already too late.

"Boom!"

Although one of the two torpedoes that hit her did not detonate, the terrifying power of the 350kg Qin explosive still gave the light cruiser a fatal blow.

The entire ship lost power, with only one boiler still operating. Four cabins were flooded with water at the same time. The huge impact even caused the watertight doors of the farther cabins to fail.

Underwater, the officers and soldiers of Lixia Jia [-] heard an explosion.

Immediately, everyone on the boat was filled with joy, and many eyes were focused on the sonar soldier.

When seawater poured into the cabin, the air inside was squeezed out and turned into bubbles that floated upward; the metal structure twisted under the influence of gravity, making a heart-wrenching squeaking sound.

He took off his headphones and couldn't help but laugh as he said, "I heard the sound of bubbles sinking!"

First result!Open!
"Long live!"

"Ha ha ha ha--"

"Ooh--"

In an instant, the entire submarine was filled with joy.

Ling Su clenched his fist and waved, then said with a smile: "Tell Lao Chen that we will have a barbecue tonight to celebrate. We will divide it into three shifts, and we will have enough food and wine."

The cheers of the officers and soldiers became even more enthusiastic.

At about this time, the situation that Fleet A was "basically wiped out" was finally verified.

Aerial photographs of the sinking of the USS Warrior, USS Reputation, and USS Eagle were immediately gathered together and quickly developed.

Later, after being "scanned", the photo was transmitted by wired telegraph to the distant Yingtian Mansion, the capital of the Ming Dynasty.

At the same time, the battle report was drafted, revised and sent to the Governor's Office.

However, the emperor learned of the matter late in the evening, because the Governor's Office and the Ministry of War had to review and confirm the authenticity before summarizing and submitting it to the emperor.

"Cheng Han, a colleague of the General Staff Office of the Governor-General, reported that the British fleet has been encircled and annihilated..."

"The enemy fleet moved northward at night and was observed by our submarine. In the early morning, our sea and air fleet approached, and the enemy fleet's firepower was fierce. However, our aviation officers were fearless, well-trained, and well-equipped. They fired bombs and torpedoes at once. , destroy the enemy's aircraft carrier with just the first air strike... wait for it."

...etc.Go to the Ministry and send it to the Experience Department of the Governor's Office for copying.

There is no doubt that after this battle, the British have no high-speed fleet at their disposal. The control of the sea in the South China Sea is completely in our hands. The king's army can move forward unimpeded. Your Majesty, please wait for the follow-up news.February 39, 27th year of Zhichang, at the moment of Youshi"

After browsing the good news, Zhu Lingjing just smiled and put it on the edge of the table.

Seeing that her reaction was too bland, Su Yiyi on the side couldn't help but asked curiously: "Your Majesty...are you dissatisfied?"

"That's not the case." Zhu Lingjing, who looked calm, touched the hair of Ta Mo lying on her thigh and replied easily: "It's all expected, there's nothing to be happy about."

She glanced at the time. It was now around five o'clock in the afternoon, and it was the morning when the British fleet was surrounded and annihilated.

Minus the seven-hour time difference, that means the London side should have received the news at midnight or early in the morning.

Those London officials are going to have a sleepless night.

In fact, for a moment, Zhu Lingjing wanted to make an overseas phone call to London to mock the British, but she gave up the idea the next second.

Ahem!As a monarch of the Celestial Dynasty, you have to be reserved and calm.

For the emperor, there was not much difference between the British fleet being sunk by the aviation force and the British fleet being sunk by the navy. It was just that the two factions who had been fighting with equal strength had to decide the winner.

But for the military officials and generals, this was earth-shaking and shocking news.

A fleet including two battleships, one aircraft carrier, and eleven screen guard ships was easily dispatched by planes?

The cost to our side is only four planes and a few pilots. This exaggerated exchange ratio is really jaw-dropping.

"Here is the case you want. Is this case tough enough?! Hahahaha——"

"I'll pay for tonight! I won't come home until I'm drunk!"

"Who said that mosquito bites can't kill elephants? Come on, stand up."

The official offices of the Ministry of War and the Governor's Mansion are now filled with wanton laughter. The Ming Dynasty's defense department, which should be serious, seems to have become a teahouse, and the officials are like tea drinkers who have won a bet.

The group that advocated victory by air power in the past achieved a decisive victory!

Previous drills and experiments have proven that aircraft can sink stationary warships, but they do not seem to pose an effective threat to sailing warships that can maneuver and evade.

But now, the Royal Navy, an empire where the sun never sets, has become a textbook case.In this fiasco that accelerated downhill, they humiliatingly proved that aircraft could destroy an elite mobile fleet.

More than 800 Royal Navy officers and soldiers have told the world with their lives that the era of giant ships and cannons dominating the oceans is a thing of the past, and the era of aviation dominating the oceans has come.

After the joy, the officials of the Ming Military Department immediately realized a problem - the first and second new battleships were being outfitted, and the third and fourth ships had also started construction.

How to do?
(End of this chapter)